Beyond The Wall

Raul Martinez

Private Investigator

Description:

Raul looked up with a puzzled expression on his face. No one should be knocking on his hotel door. He hadn’t ordered room service and certainly should not be causing anyone any problems. He cautiously went to the door silently cursing the fact that there wasn’t a people hole. He checked the security chain and opened the door a crack. Standing outside his door was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen.

“Raul Martinez?” she queried. At his nod, she handed him a large envelope and said, “I hereby deliver this to you at the request of the designated CSR and fulfill my obligation.” With that, the temptress turned and walked away.

As odd as this was, this was not the strangest thing to happen to him during his case here in Miami. He was thankful that all he had to do was turn in his report and he was headed back to Key West. Knowing to expect something as crazy as the life he’d left back home, Raul closed the door and sat down. He opened the envelope and gasped as a large bundle of cash fell out. He stopped to count the bills before progressing to the pieces of paper that were still visible in the envelope. Two thousand dollars in cold hard American cash? What the f*? He pulled out the white legal form and read through a contract that had his name on it. Stamped across the bottom where his signature was to have gone was FREE AGENT; ONLY VIII, IX, and X apply. This Mel Delancy had signed that she had witnessed it here in Miami today. Huh?

There had to be some mistake. He was a private investigator and most definitely did NOT do ghost hunting. All that religious nonsense was his brothers and mother’s thing. Ghosts, superstitions, paranormal; none of it was real. He kind of could buy into the whole ESP thing, but that was because he’d seen enough of his mother’s “visions” come true growing up in Cuba. He went to put the cash and contract back in the envelope when he noticed a smaller envelope.

Curious now, he pulled it out and started cursing a blue streak. There was only one person who wrote his name like that. Madre de dios. Would she never stop? This had to be some prank of his mother’s, but there was no way she could come up with that kind of cash. Being a Voodoo priestess just didn’t pay that well in cold hard currency. He opened her note and read the same blasted prediction he’d almost forgotten. “When you meet a witch who isn’t a witch, magic abounds and has been altered. “ She had added “FIX IT! And be sure you help the right witch who isn’t a witch.”

He would have to return the money to this agency and just go home to Key West. He was not doing the whole ghost hunter thing. Magic was NOT his destiny! He’d even applied to be a citizen of the United States just recently so that he would not have to get involved in the nonsense again at the end of his student/work visa. That and he loved the freedoms here in the US.